“Have You Had Enough?”
ROTFLMAO featuring: Rickie Lee Jones and Maxwell Mosher
WRITTEN BY: Tom Maxwell
PERFORMED BY: Rickie Lee Jones, Tom Maxwell & Ken Mosher, & Dave Roof on trumpet
ENGINEERED AND PRODUCED BY: Tom Maxwell & Ken Mosher at Kensway Studios in Pittsboro, NC and Andy Paley with Jake Posner at Mad Dog Studios in Burbank
MIXED BY: Tom Maxwell & Ken Mosher
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Howie Klein
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“Have You Had Enough?” Fact Sheet: In July 2006, Tom Maxwell took one of his most popular compositions, “Put a Lid On It,” and rewrote it to create the political call-to-action “Have You Had Enough?” The song was recorded in August, and lead-vocals were added by Rickie Lee Jones.
Howie Klein and his Blue America label released the song in September to support progressive Democratic candidates nationwide. Nearly 100 versions were customized for specific races. This resource provided a dramatic unifying theme and jingle, and was used in radio and TV spots.
Individual online videos received over 200,000 views, 140,000 from YouTube alone. In November, Salon.com named “Have You Had Enough?” the second most influential video during the 2006 election cycle, behind only Michael J. Fox’s incredible stem cell research endorsements.
“Have You Had Enough?” Testimonial:
Hi Howie –
I'm Carol Voisin's campaign manager, and as we get to the end of the campaign I wanted to thank you again for all that you and the Had Enough/ BlueAmerica team have done for us and the other candidates. This is one of those campaigns that has such structural disadvantages (in our district, Dems lose by 45%+) that it typically gets off the ground with a downward spiral of no belief and no money.
This year has been different because Carol is a great candidate and she came together with some highly motivated volunteers, several of us from the netroots. Our weakness was also our strength, as the lack of professionals and insiders has allowed us all to keep the campaign in line with our ideals – we've made things up as we went along while running an honest and positive campaign that has shined a big spotlight on Greg Walden's record. Without Had Enough we wouldn't be running any commercials. As soon as we saw it on FDL we put it on Carol’s website (with Walden's numbers next to an explanation about how Coleen Rowley was running against rubberstamper John Kline). Just asking you all if it could get adapted for us seemed like a big deal, yet the answer was always yes, all the interactions were always easy and fast, and soon we were running our own 60 second spot in our only two "metro" areas of Medford and Bend. Since we didn't have much money the ads, played sparsely, were sort of symbolic, but most everything about this campaign has been sort of symbolic, and it felt good. And then a couple of days ago the Democratic Party of Oregon sprung $10,000 for us to run the ad the last week of the campaign. This is enough so that it will really get seen, and really will bring in some votes. The fact that the DPO wanted to spend money on these ads when the Oregon House is in play signifies that they know that it is helping both Carol and all the down ballot races. People see it and they immediately understand and remember the song and the images, and it pushes them across the action-inaction line. I know I'll never get it out of my head. Our grateful thanks to everyone who gave their time and talent to make this happen, and all the FDL and C&L and other people who make Blue America possible…
Spurred on by having Had Enough, we made our own 30-second tv ad based on Had Enough, and also just put out a radio spot directly targeting the Second District's large yet often neglected Hispanic community. We’re heading for the finish line, and we’ll be out there phoning and talking to people until the polls close on the 7th. We expect to do better than anyone ever has against Walden, and may be in the running for most improved district… As you watch the results next Tuesday and you see OR-02 go up, note that no Dem has gotten 26% against Walden. Also note that while Carol raised just over $50,000 from people, Walden's bagmen have collected over $1,250,000. He has spent almost a million of it holding off Carol, and hasn't given more than a couple thousand of it back to the Republican party or his pal Pombo, so we're keeping that money out of play. And also note that without a blowout in the Second District, the Republican's will have a hard time reelecting Senator Smith in 2008. And everyone who still has Had Enough in their heads in 2008 will be a hard sell for them to ever get back. We've all done some good work, together.
Thanks again for all. Happy trails! -- Tom Mathieson